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Ohio Gadfly Daily

Last week was a big week for charter schools. A Presidential Proclamation designated it “National Charter Schools Week.” At the same time, the United States House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed (360–45) bipartisan legislation to strengthen the federal Charter Schools Program and prioritize the replication and expansion of quality charter schools. These actions reflect the growing bipartisan support enjoyed by charter schools as well as the increased focus on quality over quantity.

But in the spirit of National Charter Schools Week, we opted to celebrate part of our own portfolio of charter schools across Ohio; in addition to being a gadfly, we also sponsor charter schools. These schools—laboratories of innovation and independence—are making an important difference for the communities they serve.

Building upon kindred analyses in FY 2003 and 2007, this magnum opus from the School Choice Demonstration Project at the University of Arkansas examines charter funding across the land in fiscal 2011 and finds that per-pupil charter revenues fall drastically short of what their surrounding districts take in. We learn that U.S. charter schools, on average, received 28 percent less than comparable districts. Unfortunately for Ohio’s 100,000-plus charter students, the Buckeye State’s charter-funding disparity is almost as bad as the national average: 22 percent less than districts. Worse yet, that shortfall is considerably larger in Cleveland and Dayton (the two cities in Ohio where the researchers did a deep dive analysis) than the statewide average. Cleveland’s charter schools received 46 percent less than district schools, Dayton’s charters 40 percent. (The per-pupil revenue for Cleveland’s charters was $8,523 versus $15,784 for the district, and the per-pupil revenue for Dayton’s charters was $8,892 versus $14,732 for the district.) Given the long history of dreadful achievement by those two urban school systems, it’s shameful that the principal alternatives available to needy youngsters in those cities are so egregiously underfunded.

Up to fifty-three staff members could be let go in Cleveland Municipal School District (that’s teachers and other staff) at the end of the school year, out of an initial sixty-eight identified as underperforming by building principals. The details of the process are fascinating and instructive, but this is proof-positive that CEO Eric Gordon is serious about the reforms he championed in the district, including supporting his principals in weeding out bad performers.

Lorain City Schools was one of many districts around the Buckeye State to pilot the new PARCC exams last month. There were far fewer technological snags than most had predicted, and teachers in Lorain have no fear that they can teach their students all they need to meet and beat the higher expectations of the Common Core–aligned tests.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer ran an excellent series of articles last week looking at the state-of-play in many suburban school districts with regard to the Third Grade Reading Guarantee: where they stood after the fall test, what results they expect from the impending spring test, and what they plan to do with the rest of the school year and into summer to make sure their third

Outgoing Ohio House Speaker Bill Batchelder seems to blame the Common Core for the defeat of an incumbent representative in last week’s primary, and he wants to do something about it: “That sucker is a problem. I think we probably should have addressed it.” I'm kind of glad to know he’s talking about the Common Core and not something else! (Columbus Dispatch)

In a surprise to no one at all, delegates to the Ohio Education Association’s Spring Representative Assembly voted in favor of a resolution recommending a three-year “suspension on all high-stakes decisions” tied to new standardized tests in the state. (Columbus Dispatch)

One of those “high-stakes decisions” that the unions would like to suspend is teacher evaluation tied to their students’ test results – part of Ohio’s brand new teacher evaluation protocol. As we’ve noted before, there are ongoing

The digital revolution is sweeping across Ohio. This year, twenty-six e-schools, twelve of which serve students throughout the state, will educate 40,000 or so youngsters. Countless more students will learn in a “blended” classroom or take an online course at their brick-and-mortar school.

One emerging use of technology is to help secondary students recover credit. At first glance, the flexibility of online learning seems to be tailor-made for students who, for whatever reason, are in dire need of credit recovery. But in her recent Education Next article, journalist Sarah Carr documents a few of the flies in the ointment when it comes to this nascent, computer-based approach to credit recovery.

First, the data and research about online credit-recovery are simply far “too incomplete.” According to an AIR analyst with whom Carr spoke, “Even basic questions are unanswered, like the size of the business [i.e., online learning providers] and the size of the need.” Second, she finds that there is practically no way to determine the quality of an online course provider. In fact, Carr described a New Orleans school where the principal ditched one provider because its courses failed to engage her students and the quizzes...

The digital revolution is sweeping across Ohio. This year, twenty-six e-schools, twelve of which serve students throughout the state, will educate 40,000 or so youngsters. Countless more students will learn in a “blended” classroom or take an online course at their brick-and-mortar school.

One emerging use of technology is to help secondary students recover credit. At first glance, the flexibility of online learning seems to be tailor-made for students who, for whatever reason, are in dire need of credit recovery. But in her recent Education Next article, journalist Sarah Carr documents a few of the flies in the ointment when it comes to this nascent, computer-based approach to credit recovery.

First, the data and research about online credit-recovery are simply far “too incomplete.” According to an AIR analyst with whom Carr spoke, “Even basic questions are unanswered, like the size of the business [i.e., online learning providers] and the size of the need.” Second, she finds that there is practically no way to determine the quality of an online course provider. In fact, Carr described a New Orleans school where the principal ditched one provider because its courses failed to engage her students and the quizzes...

I was not going to include this at first as we’ve already covered the ODE sternly warns sponsors story a bit. But there is some new information in here that is interesting. To wit: at least one of the spanked sponsors has decided it will not open its proposed new schools as requested, mainly in order to protect the sponsorship of existing schools. (Dayton Daily News)

Up to 53 staff members could be let go in CMSD (that’s teachers and other staff) at the end of the school year, out of an initial 68 identified as underperforming by building principals. Fascinating details to delve into here, but I do love a good quote, and for this story it’s this one: “At some point, if you’re not getting the job done, we shouldn’t continue to pay you to do it,” said CEO Eric Gordon. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Speaking of teachers getting the job done, the PD’s Patrick O’Donnell checks in with legislators

This story is a mess, connecting and conflating a raft of pending education legislation in the Ohio General Assembly under the heading of “buried”. Common Core, charter school accountability, PARCC testing, and teacher evaluation are all name-checked. Try to make sense of it at your peril. (Daily Reporter)

My sense around here is that good teachers don't fear the new PARCC exams, even if some of their students have some anxiety about the changes. To quote from this StateImpact piece: “I have very high expectations of all my students, and I don’t lower them,” says a teacher in Lorain City Schools who appears to get it. “And I think our teaching needs to adapt to the test a little bit, and we need to change how we’re explaining things and our wording… And the kids will get there. It just won’t happen overnight.” Nice. (StateImpact Ohio)

All anyone wants to talk about today is primary election results. Bo-ring. So there’s not much for me to report on today.

This doesn’t have anything to do with any of the myriad school levy issues that rose (mostly) or fell across Ohio, but it does have to do with school funding…and my strange obsession this week with Middletown. The district’s treasurer projects a budget in the red by 2018. She blames three things for this: a continuing drop in property values in Middletown, rising retirement costs, and a continuing loss of students to charter schools. Which of these do you think the district has it in their power to actually address? P.S. – Anyone else disturbed by the description of funding for charter school students as “tuition”? Oy vey. (Middletown Journal-News)

It's more of the same investigation into "high-stakes testing" today in Middletown. As noted yesterday, quotes from the interview subjects do not fully support the thesis of the piece: that standardized testing is too stressful for students and has little value.Said one ODE data boffin, echoing several teachers featured in the story: “Each piece of data tells its own story.” Yes indeed. (Middletown Journal-News)

We’ll file this one under Search Engine Irony. ODE has revised the 2010-11 district report cards for those districts found to have scrubbed attendance data. Hardest hit was tiny Northridge Local Schools in Montgomery County, whose district grade dropped from an A to a C for that year after data was de-scrubbed. The irony comes when you use the Dayton Daily News’ search feature to find this story by typing in “Northridge”. Today’s sad story came up sandwiched between two stories from 2011 where the superintendent responds to the initial A rating. Those “tears” and “chills” and “phones blowing up” definitely take on a new meaning now. (Dayton Daily News)